Are miniseries poised for a comeback?

Sarah (Josephine Butler) and Abraham (Gary Oliver) in a scene from "The Bible." Last week's premiere of the miniseries attracted 13.1 million viewers, surpassing the hit drama "The Walking Dead."HISTORY CHANNEL

Just when it looked like no one would have the power to defeat the zombies, along came God.

Last Sunday's premiere of "The Bible" drew 13.1 million viewers to the History channel, knocking "The Walking Dead" off its perch as the most-watched entertainment show on cable so far in 2013. It was accompanied that night by the premiere of another History miniseries, "Vikings," which also scored big numbers.

The two combined to make History the No. 1 network Sunday night, defeating even CBS and ABC. And they sent another strong message: The miniseries is back.

Once a driver of ratings, the miniseries had fallen on hard times outside of HBO. When they had been showing up they were often imports, and often poorly received, as with the BBC production "Titanic" that ABC floated in last April to a dismal reception.

Yet barely a month after "Titanic" aired, History rolled out "Hatfields & McCoys," a three-part series that became the most-watch entertainment shows in cable history. Ten months later, History is back with two more successes. In an industry where success breeds imitation, the miniseries seems ready for its comeback.

There was a time when the minseries ruled television.

A lot of people can recall what they were doing in late January 1977: Watching "Roots."

The ABC miniseries produced the kind of ratings that are hard to grasp in today's fractured viewing world. The finale of the series drew 51 percent of TV households and 71 percent of the homes watching television that Sunday night. It is estimated that more than 130 million Americans watched at least some of the series – and this was before the VCR.

Ray Bernal was in junior high school at the time, and he remembers "Roots" being a big topic at school, and making a big impact on him.

Linda Smith was so impressed that she trots out her copy of the series every few years.

"At first my husband wasn't sure if he wanted to watch it," the Huntington Beach resident remembers, "but after the first episode we were both hooked."

"Roots" and "Rich Man, Poor Man," which ABC aired a few months earlier, provided the fuel for more than a decade of ratings powerhouses, like "Jesus of Nazareth," "Shogun," "The Thorn Birds," "North and South," "Winds of War" and "Amerika." The 1989 broadcast of "Lonesome Dove" capped the golden age of the miniseries.

What happened? Changing tastes, of course, but changing economics, too. The '90s were the decade of the sitcom, and if networks could draw huge audiences every week with a comedy shot on stage, they saw little upside in spending big money on a vast production that would yield ratings success for just a few days.

The constantly shrinking audience for the broadcast networks just made the cost-to-benefit ratio worse. Meanwhile, the rise of cable networks made another market larger and more lucrative: syndication. If a series lasts long enough – typically 100 episodes – it can be sold into syndication. With that market growing, the incentive for studios to produce miniseries shrank.

The miniseries never disappeared entirely, and in particular found a reliable home on HBO, which has aired several memorable ones this century, including "Angels in America," "Band of Brothers" and "John Adams."

But the HBO business model is very different from most of television. It relies not on ratings and advertising but on paying subscribers. That gives HBO the financial wherewithal to produce miniseries – and a necessity to put out high-quality fare to keep its subscribers paying.

For the rest of the TV world, 2013 seems to be something of a tipping point. The larger cable channels are now nearly on par with the broadcast networks. It's not just "The Bible" that is beating the former big guns in the ratings game. AMC's "The Walking Dead" is the No. 1 show in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 age group. A&E's "Duck Dynasty" won that demographic group Wednesday night and outdid several network shows in total viewers.

So with bigger audiences, bigger pocketbooks and incentive to stand out in a huge and growing crowd, cable channels see miniseries as the sort of event that can draw attention. And they don't necessarily need to bankrupt themselves to do it. "The Bible" executive Mark Burnett says that the 10-hour miniseries, special effects and all, was done for $22 million – an hourly rate roughly equivalent to standard network dramas.

Sarah (Josephine Butler) and Abraham (Gary Oliver) in a scene from "The Bible." Last week's premiere of the miniseries attracted 13.1 million viewers, surpassing the hit drama "The Walking Dead." HISTORY CHANNEL
Shield maiden Lagertha (Katheryn WInnick) fights in a scene from "Vikings," another History channel miniseries that is attracting viewers. HISTORY CHANNEL
While broadcast networks largely abandoned the miniseries, HBO has produced quite a few successful multipart dramas, such as "Band of Brothers" in 2001. HBO
Last year's success of History channel's "Hatfields & McCoys," starring Kevin Costner, signaled that viewers will still tune in to miniseries in large numbers. KEVIN LYNCH, HISTORY CHANNEL
"Pride and Prejudice," a miniseries adaptation of the Jane Austen novel starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, was a highly successful miniseries for A&E in the 1990s, a decade when network programming emphasized sitcoms. A&E
LeVar Burton is shown as Kunta Kinte in "Roots." The finale of the 1977 miniseries was watched by more than half of American households. WARNER BROS.

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.